r/intuitiveeating

I always wake up feeling very hungry and nausous with Alot of stomach aches , I thought that was normal but it's not , and if I don't eat every 2-3 hours it comes back and it goes away each time I eat bc food fills my stomach I guess so the acid doesn't bother me

But my question is how to differentiate between that and true hunger ? Should I just try to ignore the pain or fix the pain (medication or something ) and just wait for true hunger signals ? How do I know ?

After dealing with an ED some years ago I started struggling with digestive issues, but I feel like they accentuate more after I started intuitive eating.

I don't get them every single day but I would say every other day I get bloated and gassy and it's very uncomfortable physically and mentally. Sometimes ik what specific thing causes it for example the other day I ate a lot of dates and I think due to the fiber and sugar in them it makes me feel a weird feeling on my stomach and later gassy for a long time. How to deal with this? I don't wanna be in pain all the time but I also feel like if I eat what is a safe amount for my body to handle (lets say dates as an example) I will not be satisfied.

hi all! i hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend thus far. 💘 before i begin, i would like to disclose i will be talking about calorie counting and disordered eating in my post so if this is sensitive to anyone, you may want to skip.

i have recently begun my IE journey, i’m currently reading the book and have been trying to implement the practice over the past couple weeks but; i am really struggling with it.

over the past four/five years i’ve struggled with food: yo-yo dieting, bingeing, extreme deficits, etc. every food i eat in a withdrawal from the calorie balance and every activity i do is a deposit and that’s how i’ve processed it for so long. i really resonate with so many testimonials in the beginning of the book discussing how dieting has ultimately failed and becomes a viscous cycle. however, i am struggling horribly to get it out of my head.

today, i worked again to eat when i’m hungry, not having any food rules, and stopping when i’m feeling good and satisfied. i allowed myself to eat a crepe (win!) but oh gosh do i feel horrifically guilty. i couldn’t stop myself and looked up the calories for it and i feel so awful and disgusted with myself. i would be lying if i said this hasn’t been a repeated issue since i started trying IE. i think deep down i am so afraid of gaining weight that i cannot allow myself to fully dedicate myself to the process. i also am extremely active with things i love (not just for calorie burn but i do view that as a big positive) so there is a part of me that fears looking like i don’t work out and feeling like a failure.

how do people make it looks so effortless? all the girls on tiktok who show their what i eat in a day and have whatever but look so good? if there is anyone who can resonate with me, please share how you got through this stage? i have a couple of close friends around me who can understand but they have not committed to IE as i am trying to so we’re on a little bit of different pages.

any thoughts or suggestions are so greatly appreciated. thank you! 💞

Ritalin suppresses my hunger cues while active. However, once it wears off, I experience an insatiable hunger. My mistake, cause I understand intuitive eating also includes eating when you know you'll be hungry later, even if you're not hungry now.

Just wanted to know if anyone else relates!

On Struggle Sundays, we can share some things we've been struggling with in the past week on our Intuitive Eating journey. Struggles can include difficulty with gentle nutrition, learning how to read your hunger/fullness cues, having a hard time with weight gain, etc.

Hey I’ve been following an intuitive eating mindset for several months now. It has changed my life and it opened me for foods I’ve never thought I’d eat like mushrooms or even milk which I used to hate. I even eat things like ice cream without guilt (mostly). However I am getting hyper paranoid again and my ocd brain keeps trying to make me see food as fuel for as a fitness image sub on. Like after I eat an ice cream it tries to keep me away from eating it forever and my brain tells me I don’t need to ever eat ice cream ever again and pursue foods that get you a six pack or something. It keeps wanting me to obsess over calories and macros. It’s not fun to feel and I feel like it’s really derailing my relationship with food and exercise and it’s hard to focus on it. I just want to eat intuitively and keep doing the exercises/activities/workouts I enjoy without obsessing with diets and body image . I just wonder what you guys eat and how to handle this going forward.

I am trying to get my thoughts calmer and I don't think I will be able to just know what my body needs until I do that. In the meantime, does it help to follow a loose diet? Like plant-based, small portions? That's what I'm thinking of doing for now until I can get to a point that I can really do intuitive eating.

Hi, I'm a newbie who just picked up the book and started reading it.

I'm on the part about honoring your hunger and recognizing fullness signals — the idea that you need to tune into your body's cues in the moment, so you can notice when you're comfortably satisfied rather than overstuffed.

The book talks about pausing mid-meal to check in: Am I still hungry? What does satisfied actually feel like right now? Makes total sense. But here's where I keep getting stuck — I always seem to notice after the fact. Like, I'll finish eating and then realize, oh, I think I went past satisfied a while ago. The check-in just... doesn't happen while I'm actually eating.

So I'm wondering — did anyone else go through this at the beginning?
That feeling of "I only catch it after, never during"?

And for those who've been practicing for a while:

did you use any kind of tracking or journaling when you first started?

I feel like writing things down might help me actually build the awareness — but I also wonder if that just turns into another form of diet-brain. Curious how others have approached things like:

• journaling or logging meals
• reminders or check-ins during the day
• apps that helped (or didn't)
• or just letting it develop naturally over time

Would love to hear how people actually got started. No pressure for a "right answer" — just genuinely curious what worked for real people.

TLDR at the end!

Hi! After years of struggling with eating and my relationship with food, I want to look deeper into IE. I have known about it for some time and I have superficial knowledge about the topic, but nothing in depth.

I have reached a point where I essentially don’t know how to eat in a day. I am able to get together some breakfast and occasionally cook for me and my partner. I have some basic idea how to put together a fulfilling meal that will provide me the energy I need for the day.

So given that I have been laid off of work, quit nicotine pouches and have been changing my lifestyle in general, I want to dive deeper in my relationship with food.

I really want to have some physical tool to deal with this, something “official” if that makes sense. I am looking into books from E. Resh, specifically the workbook and Intuitive Eating, 4th edition. Both are quite pricey for me, though.

I am not sure what to dive into. Get the book and have a proper grasp of the EI before starting a workbook? Or buy the workbook and rely on the superficial knowledge I already have? Or it is best to buy them together and use the knowledge-how in a combination?

I don’t want to discourage myself, whether by buying a material where the information is too basic, or whether by the material being too difficult to comprehend.

What would you recommend to start with? What did you start with, and would you do it again/would you go about it differently? I appreciate any perspective.

Thanks a lot!

TLDR; I don’t know what is the best physical book/workbook/journal to buy when starting with EI as someone with superficial knowledge. What would you recommend?

I have a huge sweet tooth and already overcame my fear of sugar however now I'm having a hard time with chips. I'm not usually a chips person but recently I've found I love spicy chips takis in special. I go thru around 2/3 bags every week and I feel like I could have 1 everyday if they weren't so expensive. But the mental guilt that comes with it is so hard :(

Everyone always talks abt how chips are unhealthy, bad for you, cause this and that even at a small amount and it just gets stuck in my brain.Ik we can always have balance but if I want to eat an entire bag is it still balance :/?

how do i eat intuitively if i never feel hungry? i always feel some fullness in my stomach even if i havent eaten anything in hours. at this point i have gotten into the loop of not feeling hungry - not eating - brain doesnt give hunger signals anymore - not eating etc.

if i ignore how i feel and just eat despite feeling full, i will just feel even worse and feel like im going to throw up. what do i do?

I'm just curious because im surrounded by people STEEPED in diet culture. At my office I usually eat breakfast, lunch and sometimes a snack. Solid meals too: waffles with pb, banana, and a chobani greek yogurt for breakfast and a sandwich chips and fruit for lunch. Sometimes something in between, but then I usually eat lunch later in the day. Then I usually have a couple pieces of candy around 2-3pm.

Almost everyone in my office and family, usually skip one of those meals. I dont. And I feel like the outlier for eating two meals during my shift. So what do you think? Im scared to ask this question because of the people here that still have disordered eating patterns, so please only respond if you know your eating patterns are not disordered.

I'm at a place with IE where I can usually follow most of the principles without much thinking, it's becoming natural.

I struggle with the idea of mechanical eating. If I'm not hungry, it feels wrong to me to eat. But, I have no food noise now, so I will suddenly feel hungry and it can escalate quickly into a more ravenous hunger.

I am also listening to my body and it tells me what it needs, which isn't always quickly available. It also current doesn't feel good to eat a snack just to satiate the hunger, if it's not what my body wants/needs.

I am just not seeing a way around this, and looking for any tips from someone who may relate.

Maybe I need snack idea lists to refer too

It's hard to keep the amount of variety in the house that I would love to have! Lol